Turning the tables on her tormentors

Ron Dicker, SPECIAL TO THE EXAMINER

Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, December 27, 1995

NEW YORK - She's the dark-haired, doe-eyed heroine whose name is always on the tip of your tongue but never quite jumps out of your mouth. And if you're one of the few who does recognize Madeleine Stowe, you know what's coming in her movies.

Stowe's character arc is as reliable as San Francisco fog in July. She's the trembling victim at first, who then turns the tables on her victimizers.

"It's there," Stowe says sheepishly. "It's nothing I ever sought. It happens more with me because they really don't know how else to define a woman. She tends to be defined by a crisis of some kind."

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In "Unlawful Entry," she summoned her courage to outduel a stalking cop. In "Blink," she played the ultimate in vulnerable: a blind woman hunted by a killer. There have been others. And while you might know what's going to happen, you root for her anyway. Nobody gives good victim like Stowe does.

So where does "12 Monkeys," a time-travel thriller opening Jan. 5, stand in her oeuvre?

It's an exception. Almost.

Stowe's character, a psychiatrist and author named Kathryn Railly, starts strong and gets stronger, even in the company of Bruce Willis. The "Die Hard" stud is a prisoner in the year 2035 who is sent back to 1996 to unravel the mystery of a viral apocalypse that eliminated 99 percent of the population and is a lock to take care of the final 1 percent.

While in the past, he hooks up with Railly, who studies madness and Nostradamus-like prophecies and preaches about them at lectures. Initially, Railly think's Cole's rantings about the doom of civilization are crazy. And she has her reasons: Cole smells bad and he has computer bar codes on his shaven head. Soon, though, Railly starts to believe.

"She's more obsessive than she is intelligent," Stowe says. "I think that someone who is desperately trying to figure out the future and anticipate what's going to happen is obsessive."

The other exception in Stowe's career is "Short Cuts," perhaps her best moment on-screen. Robert Altman's weaving of Raymond Carver's tales of Los Angeles was an ensemble, but Stowe stood out as the wife of an LAPD Lothario.

"I thought she was totally manipulating," she says.

"The only thing she's a victim of is her own fear of going out in the world without him. She liked him wandering off and then sucking him back in."

Stowe talks with pride about her performance in "Short Cuts." "The more real characters I play, the better I feel," she explains.

Stowe never was into science fiction, considering it cold and sterile. But time-travel and the human element in "12 Monkeys" attracted her to the project. Before shooting, though, she had mixed feelings about her co-star, Willis.

"I expected a certain kind of macho from him," she says.

"But what he is is very easily hurt. He might have an idea that not everybody necessarily agreed with - it happens to everybody - but you could see he felt like a little boy. He was never petulant, it's just that you could see it in his face, the macho just dropped like that. I think that Bruce wants people to think that somehow it's much easier than it actually is. He doesn't want to reveal that he actually puts a lot of thought into his job. It's peculiar but very sweet."

Macho isn't the first attribute that comes to mind when thinking of Stowe's real-life love interest, husband Brian Benben of TV's "Dream On." But the two lead the rugged life on a ranch near Austin, Texas. In fact, Stowe brags that Benben has won the respect of fellow cowboys in the neighborhood with his ability to lift 300-pound calves.

Heavy farm work isn't in the cards for Stowe, however. She's four months pregnant with a girl. For the first two months, she says, she was constantly nauseous and about the only thing she could do was watch tabloid magazine shows. She was struck by certain fellow actors' pursuit of fame and how they were photographed out every night on different programs. She may have grown up in L.A., but stardom isn't her scene.

"I think it takes a certain obsession. and I can have that obsession from time to time and it can disappear for long periods," says Stowe, dressed in her Texas best: white button-down sweater, blue jeans and cowboy boots.

"People I know who have done extraordinarily well are the most driven creatures I've ever seen in my life. It may not be outwardly apparent, but so much functions on it. I can't operate on it full-time." &lt;